A parent was arrested in Los Angeles last week. It happens every day, but not quite like this. Gloria Williams, you see, was arrested for being a parent.More precisely, the 37-year-old mother of three became the very first person accused under a new California law that holds parents responsible when their kids go bad. She is charged with ''failing to exercise reasonable care, supervision, protection and control'' of a child.The child in question is 17 years old and an alleged member of a street gang called the Crips.

WASHINGTON - The moment Justice Anthony Kennedy said the words - "Section 3 of DOMA is in violation of the Fifth Amendment" - a muffled cheer pierced the quiet in the Supreme Court chamber. Heads turned to the audience and security officers looked for the offender, but the celebration was just beginning. A few minutes later, as the dissenting Justice Antonin Scalia was accusing the majority of making opponents of same-sex marriage look like "enemies of the human race" and "unhinged members of a wild-eyed lynch mob," those seated near the chamber's windows heard vibrations that sounded at first like a helicopter.

Surrounded by bullet-riddled and stripped cars, Gov. Pete Wilson called for tougher measures against carjackers, including life in prison for those involved in kidnappings. ''We refuse to surrender the streets of California to hoodlums, thugs and murderers,'' Wilson said Thursday. Carjacking is now a federal crime but is robbery under California law with a maximum term of two years. Wilson supports a proposal to classify carjacking as a violent felony carrying a minimum nine-to 15-year term.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca is among the California law enforcement officials who may defy a proposed state law and continue to detain arrestees who are illegal immigrants when asked to do so by federal authorities. The Trust Act, which cleared the state Legislature on Friday, is the latest measure nationwide to push back against federal immigration policy, either by reducing or increasing enforcement. The law would prohibit local authorities from complying with federal detention requests except when a suspect has been charged with a serious or violent crime.

Regarding the Feb. 17 article "Panel gives Rx for medical crisis": California, in the wake of a medical malpractice insurance crisis in 1975 enacted the Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act (MICRA). Then the medical malpractice premiums in California moderated because they got rid of the "lottery system" that operates in Florida and some other states in which a plaintiff can get a multimillion-dollar award from a sympathetic jury. In California, trial lawyers no longer file frivolous lawsuits and go on a fishing expedition with a big net. The California law has four components: It caps noneconomic damages at $250,000; limits legal contingency fees along a sliding scale; allows offsets against a settlement if a plaintiff has other forms of recovery such as health insurance; and allows for future damages to be paid over time, instead of all at once.

According to a Washington joke, Republicans want to censor sex and Democrats want to censor violence. But a California law forbidding the sale of violent video games to minors was signed by Republican Gov. Arnold "Terminator" Schwarzenegger and defended in court by Democratic Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown . Fortunately, this bipartisan blunder has been undone by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Brown shouldn't risk another embarrassment by taking the case to the U.S. Supreme Court . Under the law, signed in 2005, a 4-square-inch label reading "18" would have to be affixed to violent video games.

SAN DIEGO — Criminal charges will not be filed against an 88-year-old San Marcos man who sat beside his ailing wife as she committed suicide, the San Diego County district attorney's office announced Wednesday. After a thorough review, the office decided that it could not meet "the ethical and legal burden" of proving a charge of "assisted suicide" against Alan Purdy, according to a spokesman for Dist. Atty. Bonnie Dumanis. "We do not discuss the reasons when we don't file criminal charges," spokesman Steve Walker said, "other than [to say that]

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca is among the California law enforcement officials who may defy a proposed state law and continue to detain arrestees who are illegal immigrants when asked to do so by federal authorities. The Trust Act, which cleared the state Legislature on Friday, is the latest measure nationwide to push back against federal immigration policy, either by reducing or increasing enforcement. The law would prohibit local authorities from complying with federal detention requests except when a suspect has been charged with a serious or violent crime.

More than two years after California's "parent trigger" law was enacted, things haven't worked out the way school reformers had planned or opponents had feared. In those heady days, it was expected that parents would race to sign petitions to transform their low-performing schools. More than 20 states considered passing similar measures. The California law allows parents to compel one of four major reforms at their children's schools if half or more sign a petition. Right now it's limited to 75 schools statewide, as a sort of pilot program.

Gov. George Deukmejian has signed a law banning smoking on airline flights that begin and end in California. It is the first law of its kind in the United States and a psychological boost to a campaign for a national ban.The law, passed by large majorities in both houses of the Legislature, also bans smoking on intrastate bus and train trips and in 75 percent of the space in airports and other public transit centers.Calling it a ''historic event,'' Mark Pertschuk, director of the Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights, said, ''Once again, California has adopted a measure that will be an example for the rest of the country and the rest of the world.

SAN DIEGO — Criminal charges will not be filed against an 88-year-old San Marcos man who sat beside his ailing wife as she committed suicide, the San Diego County district attorney's office announced Wednesday. After a thorough review, the office decided that it could not meet "the ethical and legal burden" of proving a charge of "assisted suicide" against Alan Purdy, according to a spokesman for Dist. Atty. Bonnie Dumanis. "We do not discuss the reasons when we don't file criminal charges," spokesman Steve Walker said, "other than [to say that]

More than two years after California's "parent trigger" law was enacted, things haven't worked out the way school reformers had planned or opponents had feared. In those heady days, it was expected that parents would race to sign petitions to transform their low-performing schools. More than 20 states considered passing similar measures. The California law allows parents to compel one of four major reforms at their children's schools if half or more sign a petition. Right now it's limited to 75 schools statewide, as a sort of pilot program.

The latest setback for the parent-trigger reform -- when the Adelanto School District last week rejected a petition to ... well, it's not exactly clear what the parents sought, but more on that later -- will surely be appealed in court. Parent Revolution, the group behind the trigger movement, might well have a valid challenge, since it looks like school administrators were far more careful about checking the validity of the parent signatures in favor of the trigger than they were about those rescinding their previous signatures.

According to a Washington joke, Republicans want to censor sex and Democrats want to censor violence. But a California law forbidding the sale of violent video games to minors was signed by Republican Gov. Arnold "Terminator" Schwarzenegger and defended in court by Democratic Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown . Fortunately, this bipartisan blunder has been undone by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Brown shouldn't risk another embarrassment by taking the case to the U.S. Supreme Court . Under the law, signed in 2005, a 4-square-inch label reading "18" would have to be affixed to violent video games.

SAN FRANCISCO -- After a coast-to-coast airing from family rooms to polling places, the debate about same-sex marriage returns to San Francisco, the site of an exuberant but short-lived gay-wedding march. Arguments begin Wednesday in a pair of lawsuits seeking to have California's one-man, one-woman marriage law declared unconstitutional. The move would put the state on par with Massachusetts, the only state where gays and lesbians can legally wed.

Regarding the Feb. 17 article "Panel gives Rx for medical crisis": California, in the wake of a medical malpractice insurance crisis in 1975 enacted the Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act (MICRA). Then the medical malpractice premiums in California moderated because they got rid of the "lottery system" that operates in Florida and some other states in which a plaintiff can get a multimillion-dollar award from a sympathetic jury. In California, trial lawyers no longer file frivolous lawsuits and go on a fishing expedition with a big net. The California law has four components: It caps noneconomic damages at $250,000; limits legal contingency fees along a sliding scale; allows offsets against a settlement if a plaintiff has other forms of recovery such as health insurance; and allows for future damages to be paid over time, instead of all at once.

The latest setback for the parent-trigger reform -- when the Adelanto School District last week rejected a petition to ... well, it's not exactly clear what the parents sought, but more on that later -- will surely be appealed in court. Parent Revolution, the group behind the trigger movement, might well have a valid challenge, since it looks like school administrators were far more careful about checking the validity of the parent signatures in favor of the trigger than they were about those rescinding their previous signatures.

WASHINGTON - The moment Justice Anthony Kennedy said the words - "Section 3 of DOMA is in violation of the Fifth Amendment" - a muffled cheer pierced the quiet in the Supreme Court chamber. Heads turned to the audience and security officers looked for the offender, but the celebration was just beginning. A few minutes later, as the dissenting Justice Antonin Scalia was accusing the majority of making opponents of same-sex marriage look like "enemies of the human race" and "unhinged members of a wild-eyed lynch mob," those seated near the chamber's windows heard vibrations that sounded at first like a helicopter.

DETROIT -- While automakers rail against landmark California legislation that would force them to cut greenhouse-gas emissions by the end of the decade, they face a much more immediate challenge from the state. Today, Gov. Gray Davis will sign a bill requiring automakers to cut carbon-dioxide emissions by the 2008 model year. The bill directs the California Air Resources Board to decide how much to reduce emissions overall and how to do it. But of more immediate concern for automakers is one of California's last big initiatives on air pollution: a decade-old mandate to create zero-emission vehicles that could soon force them to sell more than 100,000 electric cars and other highly fuel-efficient vehicles in the state each year.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - The world's largest privately owned stand of ancient redwoods will be transformed into a public preserve now that lawmakers have agreed on a bill that ends 12 years of negotiations. The $245 million bill, which passed early Tuesday, provides the last of the money needed to buy the 7,500-acre Headwaters Forest.